mpound.
There were a few twinkling lights. She saw that there were a number of
huts within this enclosure, each being, of course, a ward.

They left Charlie Bragg and an orderly to remove the supplies from the
ambulance while the surgeon took Ruth to the hut that was to be her
own. On the way they passed a crushed and shapeless mass that might
once, the girl thought, have been another hut.

"Is that----?" she asked, pointing.

"Yes. The shell dropped squarely on it. We got her out from under the
wreckage after putting out the fire. She was killed instantly," said
the surgeon. "You are not frightened, Miss Fielding?"

"Why--yes," she said gravely. "I have, however, been frightened
before. We have had night air raids at Clair. But, as Charlie Bragg
says, 'I have not been killed yet.'"

"That is the way to look at it," he said cheerfully. "It's the only
way. Back in all our minds is the expectation of sudden death, I
suppose. Only--if it _is_ sudden! That is what we pray for--if it is
to come."

"I know," Ruth said softly. "But let us keep from thinking of it. Who
is this lady?" she asked a moment later.

"Ah!" said the gentlemanly surgeon, seeing the figure in the doorway of
the new supply hut. "It is our matron, Mrs. Strang. A lovely lady. I
will leave you to her kindness."

He introduced the girl to the elderly woman, who examined Ruth with
frank curiosity as she entered the hut.

"You are a real American, I presume," the woman said, smiling.

"I hope so."

"Not to be frightened by what has happened here already?"

"We expect such sad happenings, do we not?"

"Yes. We must. But this was a terrible thing. They say," the matron
observed, "that it was the result of treachery."

"Oh! You do not mean----?"

"They say a man has sold a map of this whole sector to the Boches. A
_man_--faugh! There are such creatures in all armies. Perhaps there
are more among our forces than we know of. They say many of foreign
blood among the Expeditionary Force are secretly against the war and
are friends of the enemy."

"I cannot believe that!" cried Ruth. "We are becoming tainted with the
fears of the French. Because they have found so many spies!"

"We will find just as many, perhaps," said Mrs. Strang, bitterly.
"France is a republic and the United States is a republic. Does
freedom breed traitors, I wonder?"

"I guess," Ruth said gently, "that we may have been too kind to certain
class